Greek, German and British media reporting on a migrant shipwreck thought to have killed hundreds in the Mediterranean has won an EU award named for a murdered Maltese journalist, officials said.
This year's Daphne Caruana Galizia Prize went to Greece-based Solomon, Forensis, the Guardian and German public broadcaster StrgF/ARD, which highlighted the failure of the June tragedy.
The dilapidated and overloaded fishing trawler on a journey from Libya to Europe sank while carrying up to 750 migrants, of which only 100 survived.
"The fatal event has forced us to confront questions about so-called European values, and where the EU really stands on protecting human lives, regardless of passports, ethnicity, race, gender or class," Solomon director Iliana Papangeli said at the awarding ceremony on Tuesday.
"This joint investigation showed how violent and restrictive EU migration policies are, ultimately responsible for massive loss of lives," Papangeli said.
"Many of the survivors who spoke to us and made this investigation possible are still stuck in a Greek refugee camp, waiting for decisions from a system that has repeatedly send them the message that their lives don't matter."
The Daphne Caruana Galizia prize was created in 2019 by the European Parliament to pay tribute to the Maltese anti-corruption journalist and blogger killed at the age of 53 in 2017 in a car bomb.
The prize is awarded each year on the anniversary of the journalist's death, and is accompanied by 20,000 euros ($21,000).
It aims to reward outstanding journalism that promotes or defends the core principles and values of the European Union, such as human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and human right.
